Locals Destroy Egyptian Bathhouse As 14 Men Await Anal Probes In Jail

Reports out of Cairo, Egypt reveal that 14 or more men are sitting in jail cells after a bathhouse raid in the El-Marg district of the city. After being allegedly paraded naked to the police station following the bust, a prosecutor determined that the group of men would be held in prison and subjected to "forensic testing." According to Gay Star News, that likely means anal probes to guage whether or not the men had engaged in anal sex.

Some reports indicate that a tip of "immorality" from a neighbor of the bathhouse lead police to the raid that resulted in the imprisonment of a large group of men, ranging in ages from 18 to 57. Members of the same community responsible for the reported tip have now entered the shutdown property and have started demolishing the business.

"I have at least one friend who has visited," writes Scott Long, an Egyptian LGBT activist based in the West. "It was a small gym and sauna, converted from a private apartment and operating as a business for years."

"It’s well known in the surrounding streets; when my friend went there about three years ago – before the Revolution – and asked directions, the neighbors said “Oh, the hammam!”, or baths, and pointed the way.’"

"The entry fee was E£25 [$3.50 €2.70] back then [when his friend visited]. It’s unlikely the price has gone up eightfold in the interim, so the figures the police gave (with the strong suggestion of prostitution) are probably nonsense."

Egypt has long opressed its LGBT population, both pre- and post-Arab Spring. Most recently, members of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood insist that gay people are not "real people."